LAWMAKERS’ CONCERNS
More than 20 Members of Parliament (MPs) rose to speak during the motion, which asked that parliament reaffirm its commitment to adopt a whole-of-nation approach to sustain trust by building an inclusive and safe digital society.
The motion was tabled by the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Communications and Information, with 13 specific demands to the government.
MPs from both sides of the house raised concerns and made suggestions:
- Banks could do more to protect against and detect scams
- Dangers of AI misuse and pre-emptively dealing with deepfakes
- Malware scams and what manufacturers can do
Banks appear to be taking more steps to prevent scams and stop those in progress, but they have healthy profits and the resources to do more, said Workers’ Party MP Sylvia Lim (WP-Aljunied).
“I would not like to exaggerate the situation, but I would say that we are moving towards a crisis of confidence in digital banking without stronger intervention by government regulators,” she added, noting that customers also have a part to play.
When banks expect individual customers to “fend for themselves”, this will deter those individuals from becoming active participants in a digital society, said Ms Hany Soh (PAP-Marsiling-Yew Tee), stressing that fending off scams should be a joint responsibility.
“Banks could and should do more to contribute, such as adopting better anti-phishing solutions, improving authenticity verification, and being extra vigilant towards abnormal transactions to keep accounts secure and prevent the likelihood of scams.”
Referencing the deepfake video of Mr Lee, Mr Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong) noted that deepfakes become more authentic as technology becomes more advanced.
The government should look at ways to electronically watermark content, or help individuals confirm that the content is real and human, he added.
“The issue of deepfakes is going to be a serious matter for democracies around the world. Because if we can no longer discern easily what is real and not real, you can’t even have a functioning democracy.”
